After a three-year absence from the Sacramento soccer scene, the Sacramento Knights returned to play this summer as part of the Men’s Premiere Soccer League. However, they had a new look.

Gone was the hockey rink-sized indoor field at Arco Arena and in was the traditional outdoor pitch of Consumnes River College.

Among those taking part in the River City’s soccer resurgence were five current members of the Sacramento State men’s soccer team. Seniors Marcos Mercado and Patrick Nelle, juniors Ricky Rodriguez and David Fraser and sophomore Ryan Rhoads took part in the Knights’ first competitive season since they left the World Indoor Soccer League in 2001.

With a summer league in town, Hornets’ head coach Mike Linenberger felt that participation by his players would benefit them tremendously.

“It’s what we need here in town,” Linenberger said. ” Every year I’ve been here, now 16 years, our guys didn’t have a place to play in the summer. We had five guys on the Knights and they were getting training twice a week and getting competitive games. It was fantastic.”

The MPSL is a semi-professional league, meaning that the players who took part in the league did not lose their amateur status.

“They are no professional contracts,” Linenberger said. “Players were not paid, just expenses were paid.”

Of the five players who did participate with the Knights this summer, Nelle was the most impressive.

After being one of the leading scorers on the Hornets squad last season, Nelle took top scoring honors with the Knights, as well. So far this season, he’s picked up right where he left off last season, leading the Hornets with two goals in four games, including the game-tying goal versus St. Mary’s Sunday.

Nelle knows that his fast start has been benefited by his hard work with Knights.

“Playing organized soccer over the summer, number one, to stay in shape and, number two, to keep your skills toned was great,” Nelle said.

Fraser, coming back to the program after a being gone for a season, also felt playing with the Knights was beneficial.

“One thing I had to work on was getting my conditioning back,” Fraser said. “I had been out for a while. I was out of shape and the Sacramento Knights got me back in the swings of things.”

Rhoads, the youngest of the five players, valued the experience.

“It’s another step up from college soccer,” Rhoads said. “Getting to play over the summer helps our program, as well as the Knights.”

However, not everything went as smoothly as everyone involved had hoped.

Mercado saw little action with the Knights as a result of a torn quadriceps muscle sustained during the spring season with the Hornets and had a few setbacks with the injury throughout the summer.

Though his time with the team was limited, Mercado still took something away from his Knights days.

“It was a cool experience,” Mercado said. “Playing with guys who are older than us and that have been around, college and professionally; they were telling us things that they experienced when they were our age. It was neat to be around that.”

There was also a controversial coaching change midway through the season. Head coach Iain Fraser (no relation to David) was fired because there were philosophical differences between Fraser and Knights’ management. Instead of having Fraser finish out the season, the team decided to part ways with the man who lead the Knights to a WISL championship in 1999.

Coach Fraser was not available for comment.

Rodriguez, who also was returning to the Hornets after a one-year hiatus, felt that the loss of coach Fraser halted the team’s progress.

“Iain was a good coach. He had a good relationship with the players. When he left, (team morale) kind of died down a little. It wasn’t as intense and players weren’t as committed.”

The Hornets’ Fraser and Rodriguez did not finish the season after coach Fraser was relieved of his head coaching duties.

Even though the experience was not all that he had hoped for his players, Coach Linenberger would welcome the opportunity for any of his players to be involved with the Knights in the future.

“The Knights made some mistakes that they are going to try and correct next year,” Linenberger said. “I am going to try to get five guys on the Knights again next year, without a doubt. I support that 100 percent.”